In modern travel of planes and auto, a journey to the island of Iona seems like a journey to the edge. From the western coast of Scotland, you need to take a ferry to the Island of Mull, then drive the scenic peninsula called the Ross of Mull to its western tip, move through the free-range Highland cows and black-faced sheep to the hamlet of Fionnphort to get on another ferry for the short ride to the tiny island.
Iona and the Abbey seen from Fionnphort
While Mull is geologically young of volcanic origin, Iona is an outcrop of Precambrian gneiss, some of the oldest rock on earth. In the Middle Ages when Celts, Picts, Britons, Scots and others traveled by boat, Iona was at the center of travel between Ireland, Scotland and England, and subject to Viking raids. In 563, Columba and twelve of his monks left Ireland and founded a monastery on Iona. From this island community, Picts and Anglo-Saxons in Britain were converted to Christianity and Iona was center of the monastic community. After Columba died, his grave and relics became a pilgrimage site. The monastery produced the Book of Kells, the greatest surviving art of the early Middle Ages. The island was filled with tall wooden and stone crosses, now known as the Celtic Cross. When the Vikings raided in the Eighth century, the books were scattered to Ireland and Scotland and most of the crosses destroyed.
St. John’s Cross and Hill of the Abbot
In the early 1100s, the King of the Isles built St. Oran’s Chapel on the burial ground St. Columba established. Many nobles were interred here and the island has these ancient, intricate burial slabs on display, and legend holds that many Scottish kings, including Duncan and Macbeth were buried here. In 1200, Benedictine monks were invited to reinvigorate the monastery and expand the abbey. All monasteries were abandoned in the 16th century Reformation, and Iona fell into ruin.
Iona Abbey, St. Oran’s Chapel and Reiling Odhrain burial ground
The Abbey church and effigies of early abbots
West Highland graveslab
The ruins began to be restored in the 20th century, and in 1938 the ecumenical Christian Iona Community was founded. Community members live in the cloisters and worship in the chapels and abbey. While some fragments of the original cloisters remain, it was mostly rebuilt in the 1950s, and sculptor Chris Hall carved stunning new piers and capitals from 1967 to 1997.
Iona cloister
Though the medieval ruins and reconstructions seem to take you back to ancient times, a walk across to the west side of the island takes you to the truly primeval site where the ancient rocks meet the ocean.
North beaches of Iona
View to the Island of Staffa
Tidepool
